Sicilian Food Culture Hospitality

Sicilian Food Culture Hospitality. Education. Research Anna Tasca Lanza is a center of Sicilian food knowledge and culture. We seek to share with those who venture here the most hidden, mysterious and complex values of Sicilian food and agriculture. Our continued research on and exchange of knowledge with local communities guarantees an immersive and participative experience for all of our visitors. We support systems of polyculture and strongly believe in the diversity of flavors, landscapes, and practices connected to food. We are convinced that a better understanding and awareness of this diversity improves our capacity to make more responsible choices around our food habits. Anna Tasca Lanza stands for INTEGRITY, KNOWLEDGE, COMMUNITY and VITALITY. Integrity is conveying an honest narrative of Sicilian cuisine and culture through open and transparent dialogue. Knowledge is the heart of our mission. It is fueled by curiosity and dispersed through experiencing food traditions and practices, empowering individual choice and awareness. Community is our source of strength and nourishment. It is cultivated through personal connections and grows by building opportunities and capabilities amongst our local and global networks. Vitality is irrational and indispensable. It blooms organically from our relationships and must be nourished in order to improve our capacity to listen, our quality of learning, and our mutual understanding. Founded in 1989 as a cooking school by Anna herself, the school is now under the direction of her daughter, Fabrizia. In the course of its 30 years, the school has expanded from a simple culinary haven providing delicious meals, culinary instruction, and rustic accommodation, to a rich organization promoting Sicily’s diverse gastronomic culture. Located in 500 hectares of vineyards, the school is home to extensive vegetable plots, orchards, and a beautiful ornamental garden all cultivated according to organic principles. Anna Tasca Lanza’s Story My mother started this adventure in 1987 when nobody in Italy was talking nor caring about food as much as they do now. Using the little bit of land given to her by my grandfather from the family estate (which has belonged to my family since the early 1800s) she opened her doors to visitors from America and taught them about food from the heart of Sicily. Around her, the wheat and wine produced by her father and his father before him continued growing and growing. My mother belonged to an aristocratic family and had been trained to have good manners: to speak proper English and French and cook gracefully. Which she did until I was grown up and left home. Then, she decided she wanted to make something different with her life and opened up the school and started travelling across the United States; adventurous, pioneering, smiling, and curious. No one could understand why she would forge such a path, but she went forward with tremendous success, being recognized by the most prominent figures and institutions of cuisine in America for her work. This is her legacy, which has been given to me to nourish. For the past fifteen years, I have run the school. We have continued to expand my mother’s mission of connecting and sharing with guests from around the world. But like all good gardens, we have grown and evolved. Anna Tasca Lanza has expanded as a non-profit bound to researching the roots and the reasons of Sicilian culinary history, and also to Cook the Farm, an immersive and experiential food education method that brings together participants from around the world to cook, eat and think about food landscapes. No good food without good agriculture is my motto. My mother was a visionary, and her work has revealed to me two things that I believe are the foundation of Anna Tasca Lanza. First, that I discovered, luckily young enough, that love piles up. The fact that this place has been cherished and loved generation after generation shows deeply. It is the soul of Case Vecchie. And secondly, that my mothers’ vision was free, like any good vision should be. Free from the ties of the market and bound to her intentions. I think this should be the lead for everyone—it is definitely for me. You are truly privileged, not when you have money or power, but when you can listen to what your internal voice has to say. This I saw in my mother and is my commitment today. Our Programs Case Vecchie Culinary Stays in Sicily Stay on-site in our 19th-century farmhouse and relax into the remote Sicily of once-upon-a-time. Experience Sicily’s food traditions through a new lens with tailored food experiences in the kitchen and off the farm. Discover our themed workshops focusing on seasonal ingredients and creative activities. Delicious flavours in a stunning setting inspire your senses and pique your culinary curiosity. Meals and lessons feature ingredients grown on the property and all wines from the family vineyard. What we offer: - Hands-on cooking lessons for all levels covering Sicilian classics like cannoli, caponata, and panelle - Daily four-course lunch lessons - Curated overnight stays from one to five nights - Excursions to meet local artisans: cheesemakers, coffee roasters, and woodworkers - Themed culinary workshops focusing on wheat, wine, oil, and more - Creative classes combining yoga, writing, photography, and food - All instruction takes place in English unless otherwise requested - Case Vecchie is open to hospitality in May and June and then again in September and October. Cook the Farm Experiential Food Education Cook the Farm is an immersive and experiential style of food education that takes place at Case Vecchie in rural Sicily. The first winter program was inaugurated in 2016 by Anna Tasca Lanza’s owner and director, Fabrizia Lanza. Cook the Farm courses bring together participants from around the world to cook, eat and think about food landscapes. Lectures, tastings, and hands-on lessons both in the kitchen and on the land encourage participants to open their eyes to the complexity of our food systems at both local and global scales. Cook the Farm is offered as a two-month winter session from mid-January to mid-March and as a weeklong intensive course in the fall. Aims and Objectives The goal is to provide students with a comprehensive appreciation for food production that leads to a critical and creative perspective on foodways, thereby empowering awareness of self and surroundings. This immersive educational approach: - Provides students with direct interaction with Sicilian life and food production - Offers practical and theoretical lessons - Facilitates discussions to cultivate critical thinking - Exposes tools to enable self-directed learning after the program Course Work Cook the Farm encourages students to experience, think and taste what is in front of them. Lectures, presentations and fieldwork sessions by subject matter experts (agronomists, enologists, professors, food professionals, etc.) are melded with group discussion to further the conversation about food systems. Site visits to cheesemakers, flour mills, citrus groves and more allow insight into the cultivation and production of local products. Hands-on classes in bread baking, pasta making, and classic Sicilian cuisine are augmented with demos and tastings. To understand food from the ground up, classroom and outdoor horticultural sessions prepare students to navigate basic plant biology, soil needs, and growing techniques used for food cultivation. The Winter Session includes five nights of off-site travel to explore the varying geography, food customs and traditions found around the diverse island of Sicily. For more details and information about Cook the Farm, please download the Info Kit here. Food Heritage Association Giving Value to Sicilian Food Culture Food Heritage Association (FHA), in partnership with Anna Tasca Lanza, is a non-profit initiative dedicated to the collection, exchange, and promotion of Sicilian culinary knowledge. FHA achieves its aim of valorizing local gastronomic practices through research and documentation. Emphasis on collective and individual food stories from the past and present help create a stronger and more inclusive narrative of the Sicilian and Mediterranean food landscapes. Objectives - Produce scholarly research and creative expressions centered on Sicilian and Mediterranean food topics in the form of documentaries, papers, books, theatre, and digital content - Develop and facilitate educational programs, internships, and residencies focused on the investigation of the Sicilian and Mediterranean food landscape - Facilitate the exchange of knowledge between local and international communities of producers, consumers, farmers, chefs, and other food system participants through cultural events, seminars, workshops on the themes of Sicilian and Mediterannean food traditions People Fabrizia Lanza | Owner & Director Fabrizia grew up being part of the renowned Tasca family of vignerons which meant immersion into the food and wine world from birth. At the age of 18, Fabrizia flew north, spending time in France and Italy to experience other worlds and to study. With a degree in Art History, she worked for 25 years in museums and as an art curator, ultimately directing two museums in Feltre. In 2006, at the age of 45, Fabrizia decided to join her mother Anna and return to Sicily to rediscover her food roots. With Anna’s passing in 2010, Fabrizia took over the operations of the school and continues to build on her mother’s magnificent legacy. Fabrizia is the author of Olive, A Global History (2011) and Coming Home to Sicily (2014) in English and Tenerumi (2019) in Italian. She has a third cookbook in the works. She has also produced two short documentaries Amuri: The Sacred Flavors of Sicily (2014) and Amaro (2019). Fabrizia is now transferring her legacy in the kitchen to her talented chefs and is more involved in the research and development activities of the Food Heritage Association. She is still often found at Case Vecchie around the table or in the garden.

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